This 1933 magazine article anticipating the reign of FDR appeared on the newsstands on the same day as the man's first inauguration. The article is composed of various musings that had been published in numerous papers across the economically depressed nation as to what manner of leadership might the Americans expect from their new President.
"No President has ever inherited such a load of problems and responsibilities as Roosevelt. Click here to read President Hoover's
farewell warning to the nation.
Here are the "Chief accomplishments of the special Session of the 73rd Congress, March 9 - June 16, 1933"
These fifteen pieces of legislation were called "the Honeymoon Bills" - his critics pointed out that not one of them originated in Congress and added to their argument that Congress had been marginalized during the earliest period of his presidency.
FDR's critics had a thing or two to say about the first year of "The New Deal"...
Click here to read about FDR and the press.
This article makes it quite clear that Harry Hopkins (1890 – 1946) wore many hats in the administration of FDR.
During the first five years of the New Deal he had the unique title "Special Assistant to the President", he not only wrote speeches for FDR - Hopkins also oversaw the goings-on at the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Between the years 1938 through 1940, he served as Secretary of Commerce and when the war came he supervised the Lend-Lease program, the Chairman of the Munitions Assignment Board and traveled frequently as the President's representative to Moscow and London.
When the U.S.S.R. collapsed, it was discovered that one of his additional duties was being a Soviet agent.
Click here to read about another member of the "New Deal Brain-Trust"...
Read an anti-Gandhi article from 1921...
Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election of 1932 this article appeared in a political magazine that indicated how the Depression-tossed voters were feeling after three years of economic set-backs. The article consists of 21 pithy little paragraphs that sum up their feelings:
"I BELIEVE it possible to feel hungry under either major party, but that under the Republicans it seems to hurt more."
Click here to read about the extensive press coverage that was devoted to the death of FDR...
"To those who have followed the political career of President Roosevelt, this unprecedented emphasis on public relations and publicity is no surprise. No president has ever been more alive to the potentialities of maintaining a 'good press', of gauging public reaction to his policies and of timing his announcements to obtain the widest and most sympathetic audience possible... No party organization could afford the elaborate press relations machinery which existed on March 4, 1933. Its cost, including salaries, printing, supplies etc., is today in excess of $1,000,000 annually, and it is being paid for by the American taxpayer."
Click here to read about President Harry Truman...
The attached article presented a dusk till dawn account of one day in the life of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945).
Written during his first term (prior to the war), the journalist recounted who the reoccurring players in his life were, the time of his rising, the preferred meals, the length of the meetings, distractions, recreations and other assorted minutia -but you'll not read the word "wheelchair" once. This is a fine example of the press black-out that was in place in order to prevent the public any knowledge whatever of Roosevelt's paralytic illness, which rendered him paralyzed from the waist down (he suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome which he contracted in 1921). Read a 1945 interview with FDR's economic adviser, Bernard Baruch; click here.
Click here to read about the four inaugurations of FDR. | 
